Silly Celestia tricks.
Posted: 03.01.2017, 06:36
Let me start by saying that I am not an astronomer.
Neither am I a real C/C++ programmer.
The math of astronomy gives me a headache, as does C/C++ and their compilers.
I have shared my own custom and admittedly weird tweaks to celestia with a few people.
Lately I have gotten several questions about what I was trying to achieve.
After failing to explain and achieve understanding, I decided to try a different approach.
The following pictures are from helping someone visualize our galactic neighborhood.
In them, the stars out to 15LY from SOL are marked.
star:Dist() is a celx available variable in my version, as are star:RA() & star:Dec(), I use them for searching for stars that look close together.
celestia:between(star1,star2) is another addition I made for my own use.
The script runs relative to any selected star, in this case I happened to start at home.
To show the lines I renamed the default asterisms.dat file, making a custom one containing the paths I wanted.
This means that while making illustrations, I do not have constellations.
I will eventually add a path function to do this, but I am still learning C/C++, so not yet.
The script initially marks any star within the range of 1-15LY with a green triangle.
(The minimum and maximum range can be set within it. I keep it open in notepad++, modify, and rerun as needed.)
If a star type matches one of the following, it clears and remarks it as follows.
M->Red square
K->Orange square
G->Yellow circle
F->Light Yellow triangle
The script is kind of stupid right now.
It does not deal with binary stars or some other stuff very well, but I am working on that when I can.
In this case it is only intended to illustrate our neighborhood, so I consider it close enough.
The first two are simply to give some scale.
The other three are to show part of how I used celestia to illustrate a path.
Wolf 369 selected.
Gliese 447 selected.
GJ 3622 selected.
If I have still managed to confuse people, then I am sorry.
P.S. Yes I moved some of the presented data around, personal preferences.
I did that back when I was making a program so I could use a kinect with Celestia.
I like waving my hands around and seeing the stars move, it is sometimes fun.
It is also a way of connecting to those who see the world differently.
Janus
Neither am I a real C/C++ programmer.
The math of astronomy gives me a headache, as does C/C++ and their compilers.
I have shared my own custom and admittedly weird tweaks to celestia with a few people.
Lately I have gotten several questions about what I was trying to achieve.
After failing to explain and achieve understanding, I decided to try a different approach.
The following pictures are from helping someone visualize our galactic neighborhood.
In them, the stars out to 15LY from SOL are marked.
star:Dist() is a celx available variable in my version, as are star:RA() & star:Dec(), I use them for searching for stars that look close together.
celestia:between(star1,star2) is another addition I made for my own use.
The script runs relative to any selected star, in this case I happened to start at home.
To show the lines I renamed the default asterisms.dat file, making a custom one containing the paths I wanted.
This means that while making illustrations, I do not have constellations.
I will eventually add a path function to do this, but I am still learning C/C++, so not yet.
The script initially marks any star within the range of 1-15LY with a green triangle.
(The minimum and maximum range can be set within it. I keep it open in notepad++, modify, and rerun as needed.)
If a star type matches one of the following, it clears and remarks it as follows.
M->Red square
K->Orange square
G->Yellow circle
F->Light Yellow triangle
The script is kind of stupid right now.
It does not deal with binary stars or some other stuff very well, but I am working on that when I can.
In this case it is only intended to illustrate our neighborhood, so I consider it close enough.
The first two are simply to give some scale.
The other three are to show part of how I used celestia to illustrate a path.
Wolf 369 selected.
Gliese 447 selected.
GJ 3622 selected.
If I have still managed to confuse people, then I am sorry.
P.S. Yes I moved some of the presented data around, personal preferences.
I did that back when I was making a program so I could use a kinect with Celestia.
I like waving my hands around and seeing the stars move, it is sometimes fun.
It is also a way of connecting to those who see the world differently.
Janus